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Quarantined Week Two: 7 Things to Entertain your Family!

3/27/2020

As we have now moved into week two of the quarantine, we hope that you have all been able to stay safe and healthy while keeping the kids entertained. Still looking for some ideas? You’re in luck! It’s that time again for our weekly list of activities.

Baking: What better way to come together as a family then to make some delicious baked goods! Baking is the perfect introduction to teach kids how to cook. While you’re making a yummy treat, it’s also a great lesson in measurements and ingredients. Make it a family affair; everyone who lends a hand in the baking process gets to taste the yummy treat as soon as it’s done! Or better yet, have a taste of the leftover batter in the bowl (one of my favorite pastimes as a kid). After following a few recipes, challenge your kids to make up a recipe of their own! Guide them through the process, but allow their creativity to flow in the kitchen. You can find some kid-friendly baking recipes here to get you started.
Arts & Crafts: The possibilities for arts and crafts are endless. Kids can use their creativity and imagination to make almost anything with materials you already have in your home; some of which you may never have even considered could be art supplies! Each week, I will provide an arts and crafts project that you can do as a family or give to your kids to do with items that you already have on hand. This week’s project is a DIY “I Spy” Jar. Using either an empty jar or plastic bottle, add dry rice, lentils, or small beans and then a bunch of small random objects/trinkets. Some examples are beads, alphabet letters, small toy animals, dice, and son on. You will then fill the jar/bottle with all of your materials, re-seal it, and shake it up! Create an “I Spy” list for the number of items and objects your kids have to find while maneuvering the jar in their hands. Here is a full list of instructions to provide more detail. This is a fun, ongoing game for the whole family!
Puzzles: Clear off a table and dust-off those old puzzles hidden in the closet. Nothing says “stay at home” quite like a family puzzle night! There are endless puzzle options for the kids to enjoy. While 500 or 1,000 pieces might be a bit too much for them, you could all work on one of these as a family. If they would like to do their own, there are plenty of 50, 100, and 250 piece puzzle options as well. Puzzles are a great tool in developing kids’ basic skills such as concentration, goal-setting, patience, and a sense of achievement. Additionally, they aid in the development of fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. If you don’t have any lying around the house, there are numerous puzzles out there that align with kids interests! Choose from the likes of Space, Animals, Toy Story, SF Giants, Marvel Superheroes, and Star Wars to name a few! Want to get a little more creative? Turn your favorite family photo into a puzzle! Simply upload one of your photos to Shutterfly, choose your layout, and order! They even offer multi-photo puzzle creations. The site is even offering 50% off right now on all orders. Now you can do a family puzzle as a family!
“Hangout” with your friends and loved ones: Although we aren’t able to physically hangout with our friends and other family members right now, we still can virtually with the help of technology! Human connection is a vital part of life and even more important during this time. We must continue to stay connected as much as possible. Have kids video chat their friends, teammates, grandparents, cousins, and other loved ones using FaceTime, Google Hangouts or Zoom. In order to have a routine, schedule weekly virtual hangouts for your kids to chat with grandparents and friends. For instance, I make it a point to call my grandfather whenever I am out on a walk! I make sure to keep things light and talk to him about my day and keep him laughing. Another thing you can do is have virtual game nights with friends or other family members. I keep a weekly game night meeting with my friends, which is a fun outlet despite being stuck inside. Are your kids missing going to the movies with friends? Have a virtual movie night with the Netflix Party feature, which allows friends to watch the same movie together while chatting!
Scholastic Learn at Home: This is another great academic resource. Scholastic offers daily projects for grade levels PreK-6+ to keep kids reading, thinking and growing! They also feature a family resource page consisting of an at home bookstore, free teachable worksheets and activities, TrueFlix, ScienceFlix, and Home Base. These are great tools to keep kids engaged and learning. A personal favorite of mine is the digital community that is Home Base; a place where kids can explore islands based on their favorite book series! From a range of activities, to trivia games, quizzes and live chats with authors, there is endless educational fun to be had here!
Camp in the Backyard: Bust out the tent and set it up in the backyard! Teach the kids how to pitch a tent. Bring out the sleeping bags, pillows, books, lanterns, and any other camping gear you may need. Cook outside, sing campfire songs, and tell campfire stories over a bonfire at night! Encourage kids to use their imagination to make up their own stories. Before bed, look up at the sky and stargaze! See which constellations you can spot. Don’t have a yard? No problem! Set up the ‘campground’ indoors with the whole family camping in the living room. Play campfire games, restrict electronics, turn down the lights and set up some lanterns and flashlights for that campfire vibe. Have some marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers on hand? Make s’mores in the microwave or on the stove top!
Relay Races: While exercising is an essential part of life, we want the kids to get outside and play as much as possible (within safety measures). A fun outdoor game to set up is relay races! These can be played in the yard (or in the home if need be). Some relay races you can play are Potato Sack Races (using pillow cases or garbage bags); Three-Legged-Races (using socks or shoe laces); Spoon Race (holding an egg or ping pong ball in the spoon); Over Under (using a small ball or object, each team takes turn passing the ball in a line over their head and under their legs), and many more! Have kids create their own relay race event. Looking for more indoor and outdoor relay races? Check out these 11 different races for kids.

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Quarantined? Here is a list of 6 things to do this weekend

3/20/2020

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As the coronavirus pandemic continues to have us quarantined in our homes, many are wondering what types of activities they can do to entertain their kids- and themselves. While this is a difficult time for everyone, it is our hope to provide some positive ventures and ideas for the community. At the end of each week, you can tune into our blog for a list of activities and ideas for you to do with your child or together as a family!

Wondering what you can do this weekend? Here is our first list of some family activities:

Support a local business: I know what you’re thinking; no one wants to leave the house and go to places during this time. In fact, many people have already stocked up on enough groceries and supplies for weeks to come. However, our community and local/small businesses are suffering right now. Whether it be a restaurant, small bookstore, local coffee shop, or general store near you, this is the time to support them. Many restaurants have switched to delivery or ‘to-go’ only in an attempt to stay afloat. Some of our local bookstores, coffeeshops, and others have decided to offer online orders. If you can, a great thing to do with your family this weekend is to support one of these businesses by ordering takeout or simply even purchasing a gift card to use at a later time. If you are trying to buy a book or game, instead of a large corporation, look to the smaller ones you can order online from. We need to support one another as a community and lend a helping hand where we can during these difficult times for all!
Khan Academy: Struggling to homeschool or help your child with the resources they need to still partake in school work? Khan Academy can help! They are an online nonprofit providing free education for anyone, anywhere, anytime. They even offer daily schedules for students ages 2-18. There is a plethora of online courses specified by grade, age, and subject!
Play Board Games: Kids these days are engrossed in technology and computer/video games, however, experts suggest screen time should be limited. There are plenty of games that can be played with the whole family, and they don’t even require a screen! Board games also provide a more engaging environment for children and parents alike. Some of the best board games to play with kids are: Connect 4, Sorry!, Ticket to Ride, Operation, Catan Jr., Monopoly (there are so many versions, they even have National Parks), Life, Clue, CandyLand, Spot It!, Codenames: Disney, Apples to Apples, Battleship, Scrabble, Scattergories Jr., Uno, and many more! Don’t have any of these games at home? No problem, they are all available online!
Card Games: If you want to get creative and skip the board games, there are a ton of games you can play and all you need is a deck of cards. You can play most card games with 1-4 players as well. Some card games you can teach the kids are: Go Fish, Solitaire, Old Maid, Crazy Eights, War, Rummy, Memory, Slapjack, and Twenty-one. If you’re unsure of the rules, you can simply click each card game and it will take you to a list of rules.
Reading: Did you know March is reading month? What better way to spend some time together than to read a book as a family! This is another great way to get the kids off the computer, tablets, video games, and phones. Challenge them to read so many pages a day, for so many minutes, or even a certain number of books a week. Make it fun! See who can read the most pages a day in the family and the winner could get a prize such as being able to earn some minutes on the computer or gaming console. Another option is to choose one book and have a family book club. Take turns reading allowed from the book and discussing each chapter after you are done. Reading is a great way to exercise our minds!
Physical Activity: After exercising our minds, we need to exercise our bodies! Being shut in the house for a majority of the day isn’t good for anyone. Propose a walk or hike with the family (just make sure to stay 6 feet apart from others). Have the kids put on a skateboard show for you with the tricks they’ve learned over the last few months. Kick the soccer ball around, shoot some hoops, or jog around the house. Another way to make it fun, is by setting up either an indoor or outdoor obstacle course for the kids to do using materials and items around the house. Need some inspiration? Learn how to build an indoor obstacle course in 7 easy steps. You could also challenge the kids to a competition; for example, see who can do the most jumping jacks in a minute or push ups in a minute. Need to do some spring cleaning and organizing? This can also be incorporated into a fun exercise for kids! Any type of movement is providing some exercise, and the kids can help you put things away, sort things or clean up a room/closet in the house!

I hope you find this list of resources helpful if you get lost on what to do with the kids. Stay tuned next week for our next list of ideas!

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Quarantined Week Two: 7 Things to Entertain your Family!

Quarantined? Here is a list of 6 things to do this weekend

Taylor Vecchioni

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